Sea ice surrounding Antarctica is on the cusp of reaching a record winter low for a second year running, continuing an "outrageous" fall in the amount of Southern Ocean that is freezing over. From a report: The Antarctic region underwent an abrupt transformation in 2023 as the sea ice cover surrounding the continent crashed for six months straight. In winter, it covered about 1.6m sq km less than the long-term average -- an area roughly the size of Britain, France, Germany and Spain combined. Scientists at the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership said the latest data showed this had been repeated in 2024. On 7 September the amount of frozen ocean was less than on the same date last year. While the winter record is not yet complete, and it is therefore not clear if the extent of sea ice for the season will be less than last year, the scientists said it was part of a body of evidence that the Antarctic system had moved to a "new state."

"What we're really talking about are two incredible extreme events," said Dr Will Hobbs, a sea ice researcher at the University of Tasmania. "Last year was outrageous and it's happened again." Hobbs said at monthly and yearly timescales the atmosphere was the main driver of regional variability. "What's different now is that warmer Southern Ocean temperatures are really having an impact on the sea ice," he said. "We know that the past two years have been the warmest on record for the planet, with global temperatures more than 1.5C above pre-industrial for extended periods. This global warmth is now reflected in the oceans around the Antarctic." On Saturday, Southern Ocean sea ice covered 17m sq km, less than the previous low of 17.1m sq km last year. The long-term average for 7 September based on satellite data is 18.4m sq km.

Europe's top court on Tuesday upheld a 2.4 billion euro ($2.65 billion) fine imposed on Google for abusing its dominant position by favoring its own shopping comparison service. From a report: The fine stems from an antitrust investigation by the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, which concluded in 2017. The commission said at the time that Google had favored its own shopping comparison service over those of its rivals. Google appealed the decision with the General Court, the EU's second-highest court, which also upheld the fine. Google then brought the case before the European Court of Justice, the EU's top court.

The ECJ on Tuesday dismissed the appeal and upheld the commission's fine. "We are disappointed with the decision of the Court," a Google spokesperson told CNBC on Tuesday. "This judgment relates to a very specific set of facts. We made changes back in 2017 to comply with the European Commission's decision. Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Agence France-Presse: Australia will ban children from using social media with a minimum age limit as high as 16, the prime minister said Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their devices and "onto the footy fields." Federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, Anthony Albanese said, describing the impact of the sites on young people as a "scourge." The minimum age for children to log into sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has not been decided but is expected to be between 14 and 16 years, Albanese said. The prime minister said his own preference would be a block on users aged below 16. An age verification trial to test various approaches is being conducted over the coming months, the centre-left leader said. [...]

It is not even clear that the technology exists to reliably enforce such bans, said the University of Melbourne's associate professor in computing and information technology, Toby Murray. "The government is currently trialling age assurance technology. But we already know that present age verification methods are unreliable, too easy to circumvent, or risk user privacy," he said. But the prime minister said parents expected a response to online bullying and the access social media gave to harmful material. "These social media companies think they're above everyone," he told a radio interviewer. "Well, they have a social responsibility and at the moment, they're not exercising it. And we're determined to make sure that they do," he said.

Americans lost over $5.6 billion to cryptocurrency fraud schemes in 2023, with investment fraud accounting for the majority of losses, according to the FBI (PDF). The Associated Press reports: The FBI received nearly 70,000 complaints in 2023 by victims of financial fraud involving bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies, according to the FBI. The most rampant scheme was investment fraud, which accounted for $3.96 billion of the losses. "The decentralized nature of cryptocurrency, the speed of irreversible transactions, and the ability to transfer value around the world make cryptocurrency an attractive vehicle for criminals, while creating challenges to recover stolen funds," wrote Michael Nordwall, assistant director of the FBI's criminal investigative division.

Most kitchen products use plastics that are practically unrecyclable, yet a trade group representing major brands is pressuring regulators to allow companies to label such items as "recyclable," even though they are likely to end up in landfills. Experts warn this could worsen the plastic crisis and misleading labels could further deceive consumers about the true recyclability of these products. ProPublica reports: The Consumer Brands Association believes companies should be able to stamp "recyclable" on products that are technically "capable" of being recycled, even if they're all but guaranteed to end up in a landfill. As ProPublica previously reported, the group argued for a looser definition of "recyclable" in written comments to the Federal Trade Commission as the agency revises the Green Guides -- guidelines for advertising products with sustainable attributes. [...] ProPublica contacted the 51 companies on the association's board of directors to ask if they agreed with the trade group's definition of "recyclable." Most did not respond. None said they disagreed with the definition. Nine companies referred ProPublica back to the association.

The Green Guides are meant to increase consumer trust in sustainable products. Though these guidelines are not laws, they serve as a national reference for companies and other government agencies for how to define terms like "compostable," "nontoxic" and "recyclable." [...] The current Green Guides allow companies to label products and packaging as "recyclable" if at least 60% of Americans have access to facilities that will take the material. As written, the guidelines don't specify whether it's enough for the facilities to simply collect and sort the items or if there needs to be a reasonable expectation that the material will be made into something new. "The Green Guides have long set forth that items labeled as 'recyclable' are those which are capable of being recycled," [Joseph Aquilina, the association's vice president and deputy general counsel] told ProPublica. "Any characterization suggesting Consumer Brands is pushing for a 'looser definition' is false." But the association seemed to disregard what the FTC said in a separate document released alongside the guides, which states that a truthful recyclable claim means that "a substantial majority of consumers or communities have access to facilities that will actually recycle, not accept and ultimately discard, the product."

In its comments to the FTC, the association pushed back on that idea. The U.S. recycling system is decentralized, and manufacturers have no control over economic factors that might lead a recycler to change its mind about how it handles a certain type of plastic, the association wrote, adding that it was unrealistic to force brands to predict which products will be "ultimately recycled." The association represents sellers and will naturally seek more flexibility in its positions, Jef Richards, a professor of advertising and public relations at Michigan State University, said in an email. The "problem with defining 'recyclable' as anything that MIGHT be recycled is that I seriously doubt that's how consumers define it." When consumer expectations fail to match what the advertiser is saying, "consumers are being deceived," he added. That deception has concrete impacts: Plastic bags that mistakenly end up at recycling centers can gum up machinery, start fires and contaminate bales of paper, which then can't be recycled. The problem could get worse if the FTC listens to the Consumer Brands Association and allows companies to market plastic bags as "recyclable."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: A 41-year-old man in New Hampshire died last week after contracting a rare mosquito-borne illness called eastern equine encephalitis virus, also known as EEE or "triple E." It was New Hampshire's first human case of the disease in a decade. Four other human EEE infections have been reported this year, in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Though this outbreak is small, and triple E does not pose a risk to most people living in the United States, public health officials and researchers are concerned about the threat the deadly virus poses to the public, both this year and in future summers. There is no known cure for the disease, which can cause severe flu-like symptoms and seizures in humans four to 10 days after exposure and kills between 30 and 40 percent of the people it infects (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source). Half of the people who survive a triple E infection are left with permanent neurological damage. Because of EEE's high mortality rate, state officials have begun spraying insecticide in Massachusetts, where 10 communities have been designated "critical" or "high risk" for triple E. Towns in the state shuttered their parks from dusk to dawn and warned people to stay inside after 6 pm, when mosquitoes are most active.

Like West Nile virus, another mosquito-borne illness that poses a risk to people in the US every summer, triple E is constrained by environmental factors that are changing rapidly as the planet warms. That's because mosquitoes thrive in the hotter, wetter conditions that climate change is producing. "We have seen a resurgence of activity with eastern equine encephalitis virus over the course of the past 10 or so years," said Theodore G. Andreadis, a researcher who studied mosquito-borne diseases at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, a state government research and public outreach outfit, for 35 years. "And we've seen an advancement into more northern regions where it had previously not been detected." Researchers don't know what causes the virus to surge and abate, but Andreadis said it's clear that climate change is one of the factors spurring its spread, particularly into new regions. [...]

Studies have shown that warmer air temperatures up to a certain threshold, around 90 degrees Fahrenheit, shorten the amount of time it takes for C. melanura eggs to hatch. Higher temperatures in the spring and fall extend the number of days mosquitoes have to breed and feed. And they'll feed more times in a summer season if it's warmer -- mosquitoes are ectothermic, meaning their metabolism speeds up in higher temperatures. Rainfall, too, plays a role in mosquito breeding and activity, since mosquito eggs need water to hatch. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, which means that even small rainfall events dump more water today than they would have last century. The more standing water there is in roadside ditches, abandoned car tires, ponds, bogs, and potholes, the more opportunities mosquitoes have to breed. And warmer water decreases the incubation period for C. melanura eggs, leading one study to conclude that warmer-than-average water temperatures "increase the probability for amplification of EEE." Climate change isn't the only factor encouraging the spread of disease vectors like mosquitoes. The slow reforestation of areas that were clear-cut for industry and agriculture many decades ago is creating new habitat for insects. At the same time, developers are building new homes in wooded or half-wooded zones in ever larger numbers, putting humans in closer proximity to the natural world and the bugs that live in it. The report notes that the best way to prevent mosquito bites is to "wear long sleeves and pants at dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are most prone to biting, and regularly apply an effective mosquito spray." Local health departments can also help protect the public by "testing pools of water for mosquito larvae and conducting public awareness and insecticide spraying campaigns when triple E is detected," notes Wired.

A vaccine for the disease exists for horses, but because the illness is so rare "there is little incentive for vaccine manufacturers to develop a preventative for triple E in humans," adds the report.

Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa have proposed a change to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to recognize ecocide as a crime, allowing for the prosecution of individuals responsible for significant environmental harm. If successful, the change would recognize ecocide as a crime alongside genocide and war crimes. The Guardian reports: Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa have proposed a formal recognition by the court of the crime of ecocide, defined as "unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts." The proposal was tabled before the ICC in New York on Monday afternoon, and will have to be discussed in full at a later date. Holding full discussions on the proposal is a process likely to take some years, and will face fierce opposition, though much of it will be behind the scenes as most countries will not wish to openly speak out against it.

Philippe Sands KC, a prominent international lawyer and professor of law at University College London, acted as a co-chair of the independent expert panel for the legal definition of ecocide, convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation. He told the Guardian he was "100% certain" that ecocide would eventually be recognized by the court. "The only question is when," he said. "I was skeptical at first, but now I am a true believer. There has already been real change, as some countries have put it in domestic law. I think this is the right idea at the right time." Belgium recently adopted ecocide as a crime, and the EU has changed some of its guidance on international crime to include it as a "qualified" offense. Mexico is also considering such a law. [...]

Getting to the point where the ICC will consider the proposal has taken years. Stop Ecocide International has been campaigning on the issue since 2017, and Vanuatu made the first call for the crime to be recognized by the ICC in 2019. Although it could take as long as a decade from now before anyone is charged with ecocide even if the changes were implemented by the ICC, the proposal tabled on Monday was vital to gaining broader acceptance of the concept, according to [Jojo Mehta, a co-founder of the Stop Ecocide International campaigning group, which is an observer to the ICC]. "There has been growing progress, as people are increasingly aware of the threat of climate [breakdown]," she said. "People are saying that this much harm to the planet is just not acceptable."

Scott J Mulligan writes for MIT Technology Review: Roblox plans to roll out a generative AI tool that will let creators make whole 3D scenes just using text prompts, it announced today. Once it's up and running, developers on the hugely popular online game platform will be able to simply write "Generate a race track in the desert," for example, and the AI will spin one up. Users will also be able to modify scenes or expand their scope -- say, to change a daytime scene to night or switch the desert for a forest. Although developers can already create similar scenes like this manually in the platform's creator studio, Roblox claims its new generative AI model will make the changes happen in a fraction of the time. It also claims that it will give developers with minimal 3D art skills the ability to craft more compelling environments. The firm didn't give a specific date for when the tool will be live.

[...] The new tool is part of Roblox's push to integrate AI into all its processes. The company currently has 250 AI models live. One AI analyzes voice chat in real time and screens for bad language, instantly issuing reprimands and possible bans for repeated infractions. Roblox plans to open-source its 3D foundation model so that it can be modified and used as a basis for innovation. "We're doing it in open source, which means anybody, including our competitors, can use this model," says [Anupam Singh, vice president of AI and growth engineering at Roblox]. Getting it into as many hands as possible also opens creative possibilities for developers who are not as skilled at creating Roblox environments. "There are a lot of developers that are working alone, and for them, this is going to be a game changer, because now they don't have to try to find someone else to work with," says [Marcus Holmstrom, CEO of The Gang, a company that builds some of the top games on Roblox].

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. Commerce Department said Monday it is proposing to require detailed reporting requirements for advanced artificial intelligence developers and cloud computing providers to ensure the technologies are safe and can withstand cyberattacks. The proposal from the department's Bureau of Industry and Security would set mandatory reporting to the federal government about development activities of "frontier" AI models and computing clusters. It would also require reporting on cybersecurity measures as well as outcomes from so-called red-teaming efforts like testing for dangerous capabilities including the ability to assist in cyberattacks or lowering barriers to entry for non-experts to develop chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons. External red-teaming has been used for years in cybersecurity to identify new risks, with the term referring to U.S. Cold War simulations where the enemy was termed the "red team." [...] Commerce said the information collected under the proposal "will be vital for ensuring these technologies meet stringent standards for safety and reliability, can withstand cyberattacks, and have limited risk of misuse by foreign adversaries or non-state actors." Further reading: Biden Signs Executive Order To Oversee and Invest in AI

Apple announced today that it's adding sleep apnea detection to the Apple Watch, including the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2. The Verge reports: Sleep apnea is a disorder that causes you to stop breathing as you sleep. Sleep apnea is a feature that wearables makers have been working on for some time, with Samsung getting cleared by the FDA for sleep apnea tracking with the Galaxy Watch earlier this year. Apple says it's using the accelerometer on its watches to monitor a new metric that it calls "breathing disturbances." You'll be able to see your nightly breathing disturbance values in the Health app.

The company expects to get FDA clearance for its sleep apnea detection feature soon, and it plans to launch the feature in more than 150 countries and regions. The company says its sleep detection was validated in a study that was "unprecedented" in size for sleep apnea technology.

CrowdStrike CFO Burt Podbere says the cybersecurity firm has not faced lawsuits over July's global IT outage. Speaking at a conference, Podbere emphasized efforts to shift customer focus from legal threats to business discussions. The Register: There were dark rumblings from Delta Air Lines last month, for example, threatening litigation over alleged gross negligence. At the time, CrowdStrike reiterated its apologies, saying: "Public posturing about potentially bringing a meritless lawsuit against CrowdStrike as a long-time partner is not constructive to any party." During his time at the Citi conference, Podbere admitted: "We don't know how it's all going to shake out.

"Everything we're doing and trying to do is take the legal discussion away from our interaction with customers and move it to the business discussion. "And as time goes on, that does get easier because we're moving further away from the Sun, right? And that's how we think about it."

James Earl Jones, the beloved actor best known for his roles in "Field of Dreams," "The Lion King," and "Star Wars," has died at the age of 93. Deadline reports: Widely regarded as among the world's great stage and screen actors Jones is one of the few entertainers to have won the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), though his Academy Award was Honorary. Jones has received two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Daytime Emmy, a spoken-word Grammy Award in 1977 and three Tony Awards.

The actor amassed nearly 200 screen credits during his brilliant 60-year career, starting some early-'60s TV guest roles and Stanley Kubrick's 1964 classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). He probably is best known for his voice role as the dastardly Darth Vader in George Lucas' original Star Wars trilogy: Star Wars (1977) The Empire Strikes Back, 1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). He also reprised the villainous role in Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith (2005), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars: Episode IX -- The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and TV's Obi-Wan Kenobi and Star Wars: Rebels.

Movie fans will remember such chilling, immortal Vader quotes as "When I left you, I was but the learner -- now I am the master," "I find your lack of faith disturbing" and, of course, "No, I am your father."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: For years, Google has faced complaints about how it dominates the online advertising market. Many of the concerns stem from the internet giant's suite of software known as Google Ad Manager, which websites around the world use to sell ads on their sites. The technology conducts split-second auctions to place ads each time a user loads a page. The dominance of that technology has landed Google in federal court. On Monday, Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia will preside over the start of a trial in which the Department of Justice accuses the company of abusing control of its ad technology and violating antitrust law (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source).

It would be Google's second antitrust trial in less than a year. In August, a federal judge ruled in a separate case that Google had illegally maintained a monopoly in online search, a major victory for the Justice Department. The new trial is the latest salvo by federal antitrust regulators against Big Tech, testing a century-old competition law against companies that have reshaped the way people shop, communicate and consume information. Federal regulators have also filed antitrust lawsuits against Apple,Amazon and Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, saying those companies have also abused their power. Google's vice president for regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, said in a blog post on Sunday that the Justice Department was "picking winners and losers in a highly competitive industry."

"With the cost of ads going down and the number of ads sold going up, the market is working," she said. "The DOJ's case risks inefficiencies and higher prices -- the last thing that America's economy or our small businesses need right now."

Apple says AirPods Pro 2 will receive a software feature "soon" that will turn the wireless earbuds into "clinical-grade" hearing aids. "This includes a hearing protection mode being enabled by default, offering passive noise cancellation in loud environments," adds 9to5Mac. From the report: Firstly, users can take a clinically-validated hearing test. The hearing test uses your AirPods and iPhone, and can be conducted by a user in under five times. The result of your hearing test can be viewed securely in the Health app. If hearing loss is detected, the hearing aid mode is then available to use. The AirPods will make it easier to hear sounds from the world around you. A custom hearing profile is automatically applied when listening to audio, like music or podcasts.

The hearing aid feature is currently making its way through the FDA and other regulatory bodies. Apple said the functionality will be available in more than 100 countries. The feature will be enabled through a free software update coming later this year to AirPods Pro 2.

Steven Levy, writing for Wired: My first story for WIRED -- yep, 31 years ago -- looked at a group of "crypto rebels" who were trying to pry strong encryption technology from the government-classified world and send it into the mainstream. Naturally I attempted to speak to someone at the National Security Agency for comment and ideally get a window into its thinking. Unsurprisingly, that was a no-go, because the NSA was famous for its reticence. Eventually we agreed that I could fax (!) a list of questions. In return I got an unsigned response in unhelpful bureaucratese that didn't address my queries. Even that represented a loosening of what once was total blackout on anything having to do with this ultra-secretive intelligence agency. For decades after its post-World War II founding, the government revealed nothing, not even the name, of this agency and its activities. Those in the know referred to it as "No Such Agency."

In recent years, the widespread adoption of encryption technology and the vital need for cybersecurity has led to more openness. Its directors began to speak in public; in 2012, NSA director Keith Alexander actually keynoted Defcon. I'd spent the entire 1990s lobbying to visit the agency for my book Crypto; in 2013, I finally crossed the threshold of its iconic Fort Meade Headquarters for an on-the-record conversation with officials, including Alexander. NSA now has social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. And there is a form on the agency website for podcasters to request guest appearances by an actual NSA-ite.

So it shouldn't be a total shock that NSA is now doing its own podcast. You don't need to be an intelligence agency to know that pods are a unique way to tell stories and hold people's attention. The first two episodes of the seven-part season dropped this week. It's called No Such Podcast, earning some self-irony points from the get-go. In keeping with the openness vibe, the NSA granted me an interview with an official in charge of the project -- one of the de facto podcast producers, a title that apparently is still not an official NSA job posting. Since NSA still gotta NSA, I can't use this person's name. But my source did point out that in the podcast itself, both the hosts and the guests -- who are past and present agency officials -- speak under their actual identities.

An anonymous reader shares a report: It seems like Apple is already moving on from FineWoven. After introducing the FineWoven brand with a series of very bad cases and accessories last year, it appears as though Apple opted not to release new cases featuring the material for the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. Apple has stopped offering FineWoven cases for the iPhone 15 lineup on its website, too. Apple launched FineWoven, which had a microtwill material, as a replacement for its leather cases. But the cases quickly accumulated visible wear and tear and picked up bits of lint, which could make them look dirty relatively quickly.

Apple plans to release the next versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS to the general public on September 16, the company announced via its website following its iPhone-centric product event earlier today. From a report: We should also see updates for tvOS and the HomePod operating system on the same date. The new releases bring a number of new features and refinements to Apple's platforms: better texting with Android devices thanks to support for the RCS standard, iPhone Mirroring that allows you to interact with your iPhone via your Mac, more UI customization options for iPhones and iPads, and other improvements besides. What won't be included in these initial releases is any hint of Apple Intelligence, the batch of generative AI and machine learning features that Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Apple is testing some of the Apple Intelligence features in betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS 15.1, updates that will be released later this fall.

Apple announced the iPhone 16 Pro lineup at Monday's product event. The company's new flagship smartphones have slightly bigger screens across both models: 6.3 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro and 6.9 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro Max (up from 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches, respectively, on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max). The Verge: The bodies of the phones are once again made from titanium. It comes in four colors: black, white, natural, and a new "desert titanium." Apple also claims that the iPhone 16 Pro Max has "the best iPhone battery life ever." The iPhone 16 Pro lineup comes with the A18 Pro chip, with a 16-core Neural Engine that it says will offer "amazing performance" for Apple Intelligence features, including 15 percent faster performance than the iPhone 15 Pro. It also has improved graphics performance thanks to a 6-core GPU that's 20 percent faster than the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro.

The iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999, whereas the iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199.

Sharks are deserting their coral reef homes as the climate crisis continues to heat up the oceans, scientists have discovered. From a report: This is likely to harm the sharks, which are already endangered, and their absence could have serious consequences for the reefs, which are also struggling. The reef sharks are a key part of the highly diverse and delicate ecosystem, which could become dangerously unbalanced without them. The researchers tagged and tracked more than 120 grey reef sharks living on the remote coral reefs of the Chagos archipelago in the central Indian Ocean from 2013 to 2020. As reefs became more stressed, particularly during the major ocean-warming El Niño event of 2015-16, the sharks spent significantly less time there. They failed to return to normal residency for up to 16 months after a stress event.

However, the sharks actually spent more time on a minority of the coral reefs. These reefs were healthier and more resilient, due to factors including the eradication of invasive rats and higher populations of birds, which help fertilise the reef. The researchers said this showed that increasing the protection of coral reefs from human-caused damage may help sharks remain on their home reefs. Sharks are cold-blooded and their body temperature is linked to water temperature. "If it gets too hot, they're going to need to move," said Dr David Jacoby, a lecturer in zoology at Lancaster University and the leader of the research project. "We think many are choosing to move into offshore, deeper and cooler waters, which is concerning. Some of the sharks were disappearing entirely from the reef for long periods of time. Reef sharks are already absent from nearly 20% of coral reefs globally, partly through [overfishing], and this new finding has the potential to exacerbate these trends."

A month before its planned delivery after years of delay and cost growth, RTX's $7.6 billion ground network to control GPS satellites is still marred by problems that may further stall its acceptance by the US Space Force, congressional auditors said Monday. From a report: RTX's system of 17 ground stations for current and improved GPS satellites was supposed to be ready by October, when it would undergo a series of intense Space Force tests to assess whether it can be declared operational by December 2025. The system continues to draw the ire of lawmakers because it's running more than seven years late in a development phase that's about 73% costlier than initial projections.

Two rounds of testing by the company have been "marked by significant challenges that drove delays to the program's schedule," the Government Accountability Office said Monday in a broad review of the US military's GPS program, including improvements intended to block jamming by adversaries.

The Next Generation Operational Control System, known as OCX, is intended to provide improvements, including access to more secure, jam-resistant software for the military's use of the GPS navigation system, which is also depended on by civilians worldwide. "The program faces challenges from product deficiencies" that "create a risk of further delay," the Pentagon's Defense Contract Management Agency told the GAO, adding that it expects RTX at the earliest to deliver OCX by December.